I wasn’t there. Here’s the Trib’s spare take.
I’ve gotten blow by blow accounts. Simply put the School District is in a panic because they thought a review and comment on Plan B put together with spit would be laughed out of the Minnesota Dept. of Education. Instead they’ve got a R&C document that puts the Red Plan document given the MDE to shame. They began realizing they had a problem when the Architects at MDE stayed up past midnight many evenings pouring over LDV docs and the censored info the District grudgingly handed over. ATS&R put in far more than they are being paid for their work. Bless them.
Irony Alert:
The current board never even saw their Red Plan R&C. They didn’t ask for it and the Administration didn’t view them as important enough people to show it to. They couldn’t be bothered with the $300 million details of their plan anymore than they are now bothering to look at the designs for $20 million buildings before construction begins.
But they looked incredulously at the materials presented last night. They are having a hard time with its being $100 million cheaper than the Red Plan. A new school board could bring it down another $100 million and still leave us with superlative schools.
The critical thing to remember is this. LDV had to turn its obsolete two-year old petition language to use designing a plan hampered by all the work the District has done while sitting on the petition. If we ever get our NON BINDING referendum it may technically be about this plan but it will really be a referendum on the Red Plan.
What’s not to like about that?
